The Industrial Arts in Spain Part 47

From the 15th century several authors praise the gla.s.s made at Barcelona. In a MS. by Jeronimo Paulo, who writes in 1491, a description in Latin of the most remarkable things at Barcelona, he says, "they also send to Rome and other places many gla.s.s vessels of different sorts and kinds which may well compete with those of Venice." In the account of Philip le Bel's journey to Spain on his marriage with Queen Joanna we find the following mention of the town of Barcelona: "Et sont la faicts les plus beauls ouvrages de voires (verres) et de cire qui soient faicts au monde. Le Jordi (19 Janvier, 1503) Monsigneur alla au dehors de la ville vioir ung jour ou on faict voires (verres) de cristallin tres beaus." ["Collection des Voyages," Bruxelles, 1876, Vol. I., p. 257.]

Marineus Siculus, who writes early in the 16th century says, "the best gla.s.s made in Spain is that of Barcelona," and Gaspar Barreiros in his "Chorographia," [Coimbra, 1569,] tells us, "they made excellent gla.s.s at Barcelona, almost equal to the Venetian." At the beginning of the 17th century the authors, Jaime Rebullosa, in his "Descripcion del mundo,"

[Barcelona, 1603, 8vo,] and Luis Nunez in "Hispania," [Antverpiae, 1607, 8vo, p. 279,] continue to praise the gla.s.s made at Barcelona, and from that period we find its merit and the vast quant.i.ty which was exported constantly alluded to. The fame of Spanish gla.s.s must have been justified, for in the "Viage del Cardinal Infante," by Aedo, printed in 1639, we find it stated that when the Infant Cardinal was at Barcelona, in 1632, he went with his galleys to Mataro, four leagues from Barcelona, to see the "gla.s.s made there which was so abundantly sold all over the country." The Spanish translator of "La Piazza universale di tutte le professioni," [Madrid, 1615,] adds the name of Barcelona to the Italian author's mention of gla.s.s objects made in Venice, saying, "This industry has reached such a degree of excellence at Murano and Barcelona that nothing can be compared to it; there is nothing now which cannot be made of gla.s.s and crystal, even cabinets have been made, and castles with their towers, battlements, artillery, and fortifications." Mendez Silva in his "Poblacion de Espana, [Madrid, 1654, p. 243,] repeats the same idea when he says they made at Barcelona, "fine gla.s.s which might compete with the Venetian." This industry continued in Cataluna to a great extent in the last century, and was praised by the following writers. The author of the "Atlante Espanol," [Vol. IV., Madrid, 1778-1795,] tells us that "they continued to make excellent gla.s.s at Barcelona, in imitation of the Venetian, with which it might compete,"

and that this industry was carried out to a great extent at Mataro, Cervello, and Almatret, all three towns of Cataluna; he says that in this last mentioned town the gla.s.s made was "so excellent, and the number of workmen employed was so large, that an oratory had been built in order that the workmen should hear ma.s.s there."

The constant comparisons which we find between the gla.s.s made at Barcelona with that of Murano suggests two things--that Spanish gla.s.s must have been of a first-rate order, and that the form of the gla.s.s vessels was similar to those made at Venice. It is highly probable that a great part of the specimens of gla.s.s of different kinds which are cla.s.sified as Italian in several collections, are really Spanish, although it is extremely difficult to point out the difference. In this, as in other branches of industry, the mania for cla.s.sifying has gone too far, and comparative studies of a more concrete order are necessary; until these are made, the princ.i.p.al fact to be borne in mind in cla.s.sifying gla.s.s vessels is to compare them with objects of a similar manufacture which have been made until very lately in Cataluna, and of which an extremely interesting collection exists at the South Kensington Museum, proceeding from Barcelona, Mataro and Cervello, (Nos. 149 to 193) which will enable the amateur to see how the industry of gla.s.s-making has continued traditionally to be preserved in that province. See woodcut opposite representing a gla.s.s bottle, also the central vessel in woodcut on p. 238.

Among the specimens of old Spanish gla.s.s we may consider to have proceeded from Cataluna the following examples, forming part of the collection acquired in 1873. Bottles, Nos. 249 to 262, cups, Nos. 336 to 339, and tumblers, Nos. 303 to 305, 312 to 314, and 328, '29. Among these, there are some which are undoubtedly still made in the locality.

The most characteristic are the _arruxiados_, or _borracha_, a vessel spirally ribbed with several narrow spouts, used by the peasant girls of the villages to sprinkle rose water in the festival of the patron saint of the district; the _porrones_, a bottle with a long spout, used by the peasantry for drinking wine; the _cantaro_, a jug, funnel shaped with wide mouth, handle and curved spout, and the _pilas de agua bendita_, a holy water vessel of different shapes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLa.s.s BOTTLE.--MODERN SPANISH.]

Very few details have reached us of the famous gla.s.s works which existed at Cadalso, in the province of Toledo; we know, however, that the gla.s.s made there was as excellent as that made at Cataluna, and was compared in a similar manner to the Venetian. The unknown author of "El Crotalon," published by the Spanish Bibliophiles, from a rare MS., in 1871, writing in the time of the Emperor Charles V., mentions "the fine gla.s.s made at Cadalso." Marineus Siculus also writes in 1517 in his "De las Cosas Memorables de Espana," [Alcala de Henares, 1539, fol., Vol.

I.,] that "Gla.s.s was made in several towns of Castile, the most important of them being Cadalso, which supplied the whole kingdom." It would appear therefore that this gla.s.s manufactory was already established in that locality in the 16th century, and we frequently meet with allusions to the excellence of its productions in contemporary authors. The town itself has continually been called "Cadalso de los vidrios." Mendez Silva in his "Poblacion general de Espana," [Madrid, 1645, p. 40] says: "They make in three gla.s.s ovens fine gla.s.s of beautiful colours and forms, which can compete with the Venetian." At the South Kensington Museum, there are two fine specimens of gla.s.s made at Cadalso--No. 1068, '73, a drinking vessel of white gla.s.s, the upper part in form of the Spanish vessel called "bucaro," ribbed and streaked with colours; the stem pineapple shape, with remains of gilding (this is represented in the woodcut); and No. 1082, '73, a bowl of plain gla.s.s, the lower part spirally waved, and decorated with scale pattern in gold and coloured dots. Both these objects proceed from a nunnery in a village near Cadalso.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLa.s.s VESSELS FROM SPAIN, IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.]

Larruga says in his "Memorias," [Madrid, 1791, Vol. X., p. 53,] that "two gla.s.s ovens existed at Cadalso, which belonged to the Marchioness of Villena; they are worked by the inhabitants of this town. One of the ovens has fallen into disuse from the beginning of the present (18th) century, and the fame of the gla.s.s made there, formerly so renowned for its clearness and variety of the objects made, has declined. In examining the state of this industry during the reign of Charles II. we find how much it had fallen off, for Dn. Antonio de Obando in 1692, undertook to reestablish it, and to make gla.s.s vessels, and window gla.s.ses as had been made there formerly. It appears that 200 dozens of objects of different kinds were sent out from there yearly." The vase, No. 333, '73 represented in the woodcut is an example of the coloured gla.s.s of Cadalso.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLa.s.s VASE.--SPANISH (CADALSO), 17TH CENTURY.]

Gla.s.s ovens existed from a very early period in the central provinces of Spain, which probably imitated from the 16th century the productions of Cadalso. We know from papers at the Archives of the Convent, of two of these which paid a yearly rent to the monastery of San Jeronimo de Guisando, from 1478 to 1480. One of these gla.s.s works was situated at the Venta del Cojo on the borders of Escalona, and the other at the Venta de los Toros de Guisando.

It is evident that a gla.s.s manufactory existed at Toledo, from some accounts which I have found in the Archives of the Cathedral, in which Bartolome Lopez, vidriero, is mentioned in 1546--Pedro Fernandez in 1590, and Tomas Nunez in 1660; as furnishing gla.s.s vessels, princ.i.p.ally lamps for the cathedral. Tomas Nunez is also paid for "three crosses of crystalline gla.s.s." In a letter written in 1690 to Count Gondomar, the celebrated amba.s.sador to James I., (Archives of the Palace at Madrid), I find a gla.s.s manufactory mentioned which existed at Cebreros in the province of Segovia. The writer says, "Your lordship knows we have a gla.s.s oven here; this week we have made the gla.s.s called crystalline, of which I send in a basket sixteen specimens for my lady Dna. Costanza."

Larruga tells us in his "Memorias," [Madrid, 1792, Vol. XVI., p. 222,]

"That in 1680 a gla.s.s manufactory was established at San Martin de Valdeiglesias, where gla.s.s in the Venetian style was made--the gla.s.s was excellent. This manufactory was under the direction of Diodonet Lambot a native of Namur. He was succeeded by Santiago Bandoleto, who was by no means as skilful. Gla.s.s ovens were also established at the Torre de Estevan, Hambroz, under the direction of Guillermo Torcada." At Recuenco, in the province of Cuenca, gla.s.s works existed at the beginning of the 16th century; but in 1722 Don Fernando Lopez de Aragon established a manufactory on a large scale. The gla.s.s made there was used by the king and the greater part of the rich people at Madrid. In 1739 two other gla.s.s works existed there, which continued their operations during the rest of the century. In the same province several gla.s.s ovens existed towards the middle of the last century. The princ.i.p.al ones were established in the villages of Arbetota, Vindel and Armallones; only coa.r.s.e specimens were made there, but at an earlier period their productions had been, Larruga tells us in the nineteenth volume of his "Memorias," very important. The gla.s.s works which we find mentioned in the "Atlante Espanol," [Madrid, 1795,] were also of a very inferior quality; they were established at the end of the last century at Busot, in the province of Alicante, Hinojares and Carolina, province of Jaen. The "Correo de Espana," [Vol. I. Madrid, 1771,] mentions an important gla.s.s manufactory which existed at Andorra near Alcaniz, and one where gla.s.s of an inferior quality was made at Cabra, in the province of Cordova. Cabanilles, "Historia y descripcion del reino de Valencia," Barcelona, mentions the existence from a very early period of gla.s.s works at Olleria, a village of the kingdom of Valencia.

The only mention which I have found in which Seville appears as a centre of this industry, is an interesting allusion to the village of Cala, which was represented in a festival which was given to Philip II. in 1578, "with a crystal gla.s.s in its hand, and several others at its feet, because a famous gla.s.s oven existed there." ["Recibimiento que hizo Sevilla al Rey Don Phelipe." Por Juan de Mallara, Sevilla, 1570, p. 89.]

In the 17th century, during the reign of Philip IV., the gla.s.s made at Valdemaqueda in the province of Avila was very celebrated. In a royal schedule, dated 1680, which states the price at which things were sold at Madrid, "the gla.s.s made at Barcelona, Valdemaqueda, and Villafranca"

are mentioned. We find the gla.s.s of Valdemaqueda was sold for a higher price than that made at the other localities.

The princ.i.p.al value of these extracts is to prove that the industry of gla.s.s-making existed in these localities; none of the authors mentions the princ.i.p.al characteristics by which the vessels made may be cla.s.sified. Those made at Almeria and Barcelona are more easily known, for they have kept until very recently their general character; while at Cadalso and other localities of the centre of Spain, the tradition of the Italian models has quite disappeared. In one fact every author agrees, namely, that the gla.s.s made in those provinces closely resembled the Venetian, and was completely different to the system followed by the Arabs. It is, therefore, highly probable, as I have already stated, that a large number of objects of gla.s.s of different kinds, which have been hitherto considered Italian, were made in Spain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VASE OF GREEN GLa.s.s, WITH BLACK HANDLES AND RIBS.--SPANISH, 17TH CENTURY.]

The following observations may serve as a guide in the difficult task of cla.s.sifying this group. The specimens of gla.s.s vessels most generally met with in the neighbourhood of Cadalso are:--

Objects of white transparent gla.s.s, sweetmeat dishes ornamented with ribs, b.u.t.tons, and reticulated rims with touches of gold.

Objects of clear greenish gla.s.s of a paler hue than is made in the province of Almeria, decorated with blue, or some opaque colour (see woodcut); in some instances part of the object is decorated with a rough crackled surface.

Objects of opaque gla.s.s with different colours, vases, gla.s.ses, cups and saucers, of thin milk-white texture with blue spots, or imitations in the j.a.panese style of different colours. Vases for holding flowers, and other objects, of dark blue gla.s.s, milk-white cups, gla.s.s and other objects ornamented with lines of red or blue of a thicker paste than the preceding ones.

Although these objects are copied from Venetian models, they are coa.r.s.er in every detail, they are heavier and thicker, and the delicate and elegant ornamentation which we find on Italian specimens is almost always wanting, we seldom find examples of the beautiful _millefiori_ chalcedony or tortoise-sh.e.l.l paste, and the outline of these objects is symmetrical and Oriental in style.

The royal gla.s.s manufactory at La Granja de San Ildefonso, was founded on the remains of an important one which had been established some years before, under the protection of Philip the 5th, at the Nuevo Bastan, in the province of Madrid.

Towards the years 1712 to 1718, this king commissioned D^{n}. Tomas del Burgo and D^{n}. Juan B. Pomerague to establish gla.s.s-works at the Bastan; twenty foreign workmen were brought over with this purpose, with their families, and the necessary implements. These gentlemen did not carry out the undertaking to the king's satisfaction, and in 1720 his majesty gave D^{n}. Juan de Goyeneche special privileges that he might "make every kind of gla.s.s manufacture up to the height of twenty inches, and have these gla.s.ses worked and polished, embroidered and covered with metal; to make looking-gla.s.s and similar decorations, and every kind of gla.s.s vessels, and white gla.s.s for window-panes, and every sort of gla.s.s vessel of different kinds and forms which have been invented in the present time, or likely to be invented in this art." In order to carry this out, the king allowed them to have as many foreign masters and workmen as they might require, with the sole condition that a fourth part of the workmen employed should be Spaniards. It was prohibited that any industry of a similar kind should be established in Spain for thirty years, or that gla.s.s made abroad should be imported into the country.

After a long series of annoyances of every kind, Goyeneche succeeded in meeting with the king's approbation, but as fuel was very scarce at the Bastan, he removed the gla.s.s works to Villanueva de Alcorcon, in the province of Cuenca. From the ruins of this gla.s.s manufactory, Larruga says in his "Memorias," [vol. xiii., p. 274], "was founded the splendid gla.s.s manufactory of San Ildefonso."

Ventura Sit, a native of Catalonia, constructed an oven there, which worked from 1728 to 1736 with great success. Queen Dona Isabel encouraged Sit, and the king ordered him to make some gla.s.ses which might serve for mirrors. Those he made at first were small, but Sit began by making them 30 inches long and ended by making them as large as 145 inches. The machine for polishing them was invented by a Catalan called Pedro Fronvila.

The section of gla.s.s vessels of a superior quality began to work in 1771. Gla.s.ses, bottles, and objects of all kinds were made there under the direction of a gla.s.s worker called Eder, a Swede, and Sivert, a Frenchman. Another section where the same quality of gla.s.s was made was directed by Don Segismundo Brun, a native of Hanover, but who had been brought up from a very early age at La Granja. It was this artist who invented gilded gla.s.s _a feu_. A large number of foreign artists worked at this manufacture; they impressed their special style on the objects they made, which were similar to those of the same kind manufactured in France, England, and Germany.

From the time of Ventura Sit, towards the year 1734, the manufactory of gla.s.s at La Granja belonged to the crown, and continued under the protection of the Spanish kings, who spared no expense to obtain its development. Early in the present century this industry began to decay.

Towards 1828 it pa.s.sed into private hands, and continued to work until 1849. The manufactory is now closed, although there is some talk of reviving this industry.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GLa.s.s VESSELS FROM SPAIN, IN THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.]

The gla.s.s objects made at La Granja possess a very marked French style, which renders them liable to be mistaken for French and German productions of a similar kind. The greater part of the objects which were made were of white clear transparent gla.s.s, richly cut and engraved, or ornamented with gold (see woodcut). The cut gla.s.s is generally engraved with inscriptions, views, flowers, and devices, and until very lately has been made there in a rougher style. Coloured and enamelled gla.s.s has also been made there, but not to so great an extent. Gla.s.s for window panes and mirrors were ordered for the Royal palaces. l.u.s.tres of all kinds of white and coloured gla.s.s were also made there in the Venetian style, richly ornamented with coloured flowers. A small chandelier of this kind is in the South Kensington Museum (No.

998, '73), the only example I have seen of a l.u.s.tre of latticinio gla.s.s.

In the collection of old Spanish gla.s.s at the Museum will be found a sufficient variety of specimens of this manufacture to give an idea of the different styles made at La Granja. A fac-simile of one of the engraved mirrors and a fine cut gla.s.s will be found in "Museo Espanol de Antiguedades, vol. IX."

Besides gla.s.s vessels and objects of a similar kind, painted gla.s.s windows have been made in Spain from a very early time, of which most important specimens exist at Toledo, Leon, and other Spanish cathedrals.

The proceedings employed in this industry are too well known to require repet.i.tion in this volume. The industry was undoubtedly imported by foreign workmen from France and the north of Europe, and as was the case with other industries it took root in the country, and a large number of Spanish artists followed and took part in this industry.

In order to convey an idea of the height of this industry in Spain, I give a list of the painters who worked on gla.s.s which I have collected from the following works, to which I refer the student who may wish for further details on the subject. Cean Bermudez, "Dicc. Hist. de los mas il.u.s.tres Profesores de las Bellas Artes en Espana. Madrid, 1800."

Villanueva, "Viage a las Iglesias de Espana." Piferrer, "Recuerdos y Bellezas. Mallorca." "Doc.u.mentos Ineditos." Zarco del Valle.

GLa.s.s PAINTERS IN SPAIN.

Years in which they worked Artists. Residence.

1682. Alcalde, Francisco Burgos.

1504. Aleman, Cristoval Toledo.

1458. Aleman, Pedro Toledo.

1645. Alonso, Francisco Burgos.

1544. Arce, Juan de Burgos.

1581. Arce Burgos.

1613. Argete, Luis de Leon.

1424. Aragan, Maestro Joan Leon.

Arfian, Antonio Sevilla.

Arteaga, Matias Sevilla.

1516. Ayala, Francisco Palencia.

1605. Babel, Jorge Madrid.

1442. Baldovin, Maestro Leon.

1519. Bernal, Juan Sevilla.

1533. Borgona, Jorge Palencia.

1439. Bonifacio, Pedro Toledo.

1562. Bruges, Carlos Cuenca.

1602. Campo, Diego del Madrid.